Chapter 50 Mother-of-Pearl Incense (Thirteen) Can marriage be a spur-of-the-moment decision? ...

The kitchen stove clattered and clanged, abruptly breaking the silence of the courtyard. Soon, the aroma of food wafted over, and Yu Qi recognized the steaming fish in the pot. The ginger flavor was mild, yet there was no fishy smell. Some lotus seeds were also steamed, presumably to be mashed into a lotus paste for making lotus flower pastries. Frying lotus flower pastries requires precise control of the heat, so Old Han must be quite skilled.

Taking advantage of the fact that Old Han couldn't hear him, he asked the maid, "How long has Old Han been working here?"

The maid said, "It's been about a year and a half."

"I just heard Old Han say that Lu Yan'er often deducts his monthly salary under various pretexts, so she probably doesn't like him very much. How could she tolerate him for a year and a half?"

The maid gradually became suspicious. She glanced outside the door, walked closer, and whispered, "Old Han is a fairly honest man, but he's not good with words, so the young lady has always disliked him. However, he's a very good cook. He used to be a chef in a proper restaurant. When we do business here, the banquets have to be quite elaborate, and Old Han can cook some decent dishes. So even though the young lady doesn't like him, she still uses him."

Yu Qi picked up his teacup and took a sip. "Is he always the only one in the kitchen? I see that although you don't have many people in your family, you must be very busy whenever guests come. Why don't you hire a couple more helpers?"

“How could a young lady bear to part with her child? Look, other young ladies all have a maid in addition to their mothers, but here I am the only one. I’m alright, but to be honest, Old Han has it really tough. In other courtyards, the kitchen alone needs two or three people to cook, but he does the work of three people, and he only gets paid for two. If it weren’t for the fact that he has a lot of mouths to feed, he would have quit long ago. Even so, the young lady still feels that she’s been cheated by paying him for two people, so she often finds fault with him, deducting a little from here and a little from there.”

Jiuli leaned her head on the table and chimed in, "So, Old Han can really put up with this?"

“Sometimes when he couldn’t stand it anymore, Lao Han would say he wanted to quit. Then the girl would change her tune and try to persuade him to stay. She would make all sorts of promises to him. Last year, she even said that there were vegetables in the kitchen that couldn’t be eaten and couldn’t be kept for long, so she would let Lao Han take them home for his family to eat. But as time went on, the girl felt it was too much money and blamed Lao Han for deliberately buying extra vegetables and leaving them there.”

"That Lu Yan'er is really troublesome." Jiu Li and Yu Qi pouted, then turned to ask the maid, "She's always like this, hasn't Old Han ever argued with her?"

The aunt shook her head and sighed, "Who can argue with that? They definitely argued, but Old Han is clumsy with words and can't win against the girl's sharp tongue. Every time they argue, in the end, it turns out that Old Han is in the wrong. Sometimes I try to mediate, and then it's over."

But resentment can accumulate, and over time, who can guarantee that an honest person won't turn into a vicious monster? Besides, Old Han could easily enter Lu Yan'er's bedroom and kill her without taking any money, which is in line with his nature.

Yu Qi sighed softly, then asked, "Have they been arguing lately?"

The aunt thought for a moment, "It wasn't exactly noisy. It was just on the tenth day of the month. There were a lot of guests, and one of them, seeing Old Han busy serving, gave him half a string of cash as he was serving the dishes. Later, when the banquet was over and the tables were being cleared, the girl sat on this chair and muttered that if it weren't for her, where would Old Han have earned all that money? Old Han didn't say anything, but even I felt a little uncomfortable listening to it."

Of course, the other person earned their money through hard work with their own skills, but Lu Yan'er took all the credit for herself. That's fine, but I'm afraid that when she grumbles about those things, she's still upset that Old Han took the reward money but didn't hand it over.

Suddenly Zhang Da chimed in, "If I were this old Han, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to resist the urge to kill him too."

Upon hearing this, the maidservant suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. "Could it be that our young lady was really harmed by Old Han?"

Yu Qi, fearing he might alert the enemy, smiled and said, "No, it's just that your girl died at home, so we need to ask everyone who frequently comes and goes from this house. Didn't we ask you too? We also need to ask the guests."

The maid thought it made sense and stopped doubting it, then went to the kitchen to make tea for Zhang Da.

After watching her leave, Zhang Da smiled, turned around, sat down on the chair next to him, and sighed heavily. "I think this time it's definitely him. It was probably this old Han who did it. After suffering this kind of humiliation for so long, even an honest person can be pushed to the limit. What wouldn't he do when he gets ruthless?"

This time, Yu Qi had a similar thought to him. In any case, Old Han had a motive for killing, and he was able to enter Lu Yan'er's room without alerting the maid.

However, they haven't found any truly compelling evidence yet, and even if they arrest him, they can't prosecute him if he denies everything. Zhang Da suggests that they need to carefully investigate Lao Han's movements over the past two days, hoping to find some crucial evidence.

Upon hearing Zhang Da's statement, Jiu Li quipped, "You need evidence? Back in Liyuan, the yamen said Du Zhong and I were the murderers, but there wasn't any solid evidence, was there? Yet they still brought us to court."

Zhang Da was embarrassed by what he said. "It's been several months since then, and you still remember? Besides, it wasn't Lord Wang's order that Lord Qi and I followed. Furthermore, although I'm not as smart as you, I still have a sense of reason, especially after receiving Mr. Yu's teachings these days. I wouldn't dare to treat human lives as a joke."

Jiuli then came over and shoved Yuqi's shoulder, "Uncle, look, Brother Zhang is just flattering you. It's not for nothing that you've been running around helping him investigate the case these past two days."

After the shoving, her hand was still on his shoulder. Yu Qi felt a little uncomfortable in front of outsiders; ultimately, the innocent couldn't simply clear themselves of wrongdoing.

He brushed her hand away, glanced at her sideways, and said in a low, somewhat stern tone, "You should just sit there and talk properly. Walking around like this won't keep you calm for a moment."

She was used to his seriousness and didn't take it seriously. She put her hand down and turned to say, "But after being busy for the past two days, Tang Chengguan's case is still not solved, and today Lu Yan'er's murder case has occurred. I always feel that these two cases are related."

Zhang Da shook his hand, "I think you're just paranoid. The two cases at Liyuan seemed similar at first glance, but in the end, they turned out to be unrelated. I think this time will be the same."

Yu Qi felt that Jiu Li's suspicions were not unreasonable, but at the moment, Lao Han was still the most suspicious. He couldn't ignore the one closer to him and investigate Lao Han first, so he did not immediately agree with her.

Seeing his calm expression, Jiuli assumed that he, like Zhang Da, thought she was being suspicious, so she sullenly turned back to her chair and sat down.

Just then, the food was ready in the kitchen, and the maid and Old Han brought it over. She secretly stared at Old Han for a while, still wondering. She felt that regardless of whether Old Han killed Lu Yan'er, they should first find out the whereabouts of the mother-of-pearl box, whether it had ever been in Lu Yan'er's hands, and where it was now. Perhaps this was the key to revealing the truth.

After having eaten there, Zhang Da was about to leave. Following Yu Qi's instructions, he told the two maids, Lao Han and Niang, that they should stay in the courtyard until Lu Yan'er's funeral was over. He explained that they would receive extra wages for each extra day they stayed, so the two maids had no choice but to agree.

As they walked out of the alley, Yu Qi and Zhang Da discussed for a few words, with Yu Qi instructing Zhang Da to secretly monitor Lao Han's movements. "If he really did kill him, he might not be so calm. He might do something unusual. If you send someone to keep an eye on him, you might be able to get some evidence."

Zhang Da agreed and mounted his horse. It was the hottest time of day, and Yu Qi also hired a carriage in front of the street. They traveled together for a while, one inside and one outside the carriage.

The bustling crowd and the chirping of cicadas created a cacophony that was almost too soothing to sleep. Jiu Li, who hadn't slept well the night before and had managed a nap on her way here, felt drowsy again after the morning's busyness. So she naturally took Yu Qi's arm and rested her head on his shoulder.

The curtains of the carriage curtains fluttered open, revealing Zhang Da riding his horse beside the carriage. Yu Qi, afraid he would see her, moved her shoulder aside and gently lifted her head with one hand, saying, "Sleep over there."

Jiuli refused, simply closing her eyes and lifting her head back up, saying, "No, that board is too hard."

He was afraid that pushing her would dispel her drowsiness, so he gave up and glanced at the corner of the curtain that had been lifted.

Zhang Da chuckled outside, "Miss Yu should be at home eating and sleeping well, like a proper young lady. It's all because of me that she's so tired so early in the morning."

He didn't feel that Jiuli was being overly intimate with him, and he secretly relaxed, his voice calm and deep, "Even if it weren't for you, she would still be restless and always asks about these kinds of things."

Jiuli wasn't asleep yet; she smiled, her lips curving upwards on his shoulder. He glanced down and smiled back, a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. Slowly, he reached an arm around her from behind and grasped her arm to prevent the carriage from swaying her off.

She felt as if she had returned to the age of three, in his arms, where her whole body could go limp. Although she didn't know where the road would lead tomorrow, she felt no confusion or despair. Her only unease was the fear that he would push her away and abandon her.

Jiuli woke up as soon as the carriage arrived at her doorstep, full of energy. She went into the courtyard to check on Du Zhong. Du Zhong had been lying at home for two days and was feeling extremely bored. When he saw her come in, he hurriedly asked her about the progress of the case.

She sat on the edge of the bed, rolling her eyes. "No progress at all? There's been absolutely no progress in Tang Chengguan's case. Another person died this morning!"

Du Zhong was in high spirits and quickly propped himself up to sit up. "Who died?"

Jiuli scolded him, "You can still laugh when you hear about dead people?"

He suppressed a laugh, "Who likes dead people? I'm just curious. Tell me, what exactly happened?"

She told him about Lu Yan'er in detail, and then expressed her suspicions, "I think these two cases are related, but Uncle and Brother Zhang think they are not related. They think Old Han is the most suspicious, and they have people watching him now."

Du Zhong thought for a moment and said, "Why don't we let them focus on finding evidence against Old Han, and we'll investigate something else?"

Jiuli glanced at his leg, "Us? Your leg isn't even healed yet, and you're already talking to me about 'us'?"

"My leg isn't broken, it's just an external injury." He rolled up his trouser leg to show her the white cloth wrapped around it. "The wound has scabbed over in the last two days. Look, it's not bleeding anymore, so walking around shouldn't be a problem."

She slapped his uninjured leg. "Then why do you sleep in bed all day?!"

Just as she finished speaking, Xiuzhi came in with a bowl of snowflake custard. When she saw Jiuli there, she exclaimed, "Oh! When did you get back, Miss? I'll go buy you another bowl." She handed the bowl to Duzhong first, saying, "The chestnut pastry vendor wasn't out today, so I only bought snowflake custard."

The shaved ice vendor was clearly not far from the street, and although he claimed he could walk there without any problem, he still kept ordering Xiuzhi around. Jiuli realized that he just liked to make things difficult for people and enjoy having them run errands for him.

She couldn't help but glance at him secretly, then turned to Xiuzhi and smiled, "Sister Guo, don't go buy it. I'll go to that stall myself if I want to eat. I'm not like some people who become paralyzed just because they injured one leg. I think that leg is useless anyway, so why not just cut it off!"

As she spoke, she raised her palm again to chop at Du Zhong's other leg. Seeing this, Xiu Zhi quickly grabbed her hand, "That's enough, that's enough. For my sake, don't make a fuss. The old lady is taking a nap. If you make a fuss, you'll wake her up."

Du Zhong, protected by him, proudly raised his eyebrows at Jiu Li.

She originally intended to take a nap when she got back, but because she had slept twice on the train, she was too energetic to sleep. Seeing Du Zhong eating shaved ice cream, she also got cravings, so she went back to her room to get some money, went to the shaved ice cream stall, and ordered several bowls to be delivered to her home.

Everyone except the old lady had some. Taking advantage of a moment of free time, Fengqiao and Axiang ate behind the counter with their bowls. Axiang initially said many words of thanks, but Jiuli heard this from the cubicle and quickly put down her bowl and came out to tell him not to be polite.

Fengqiao also told him, "Don't keep thanking me. You'll understand when you get older. Our girls are so generous they'd be like fairy maidens who give away all their money. If you keep thanking them, you'll never be able to stop!" Jiuli still smiled as she turned into the next room. Yuqi looked at her and asked, "How was Zhong'er's injury just now?"

He said it had scabbed over, but I didn't open it to check.

He nodded, the bowl of shaved ice beside him untouched; he was looking at a prescription drawn up by someone.

Knowing that he rarely ate these things, Jiu Li brought the bowl to herself as well, giggling, "Since we've already bought it, it would be a waste if you didn't eat it. I'll finish mine."

Yu Qi glanced at her and said, "You are only allowed to eat one bowl."

"Oh." She pouted and pushed the bowl back. "What are you looking at?"

He handed her the prescription and began to drink his tea. She glanced at the prescription and placed it on the table. "It's just a common cold. Even Eucommia wouldn't prescribe the wrong medicine, and Uncle Fengqiao certainly wouldn't."

"This is owned by A-Xiang." He nodded with satisfaction as he spoke.

“Since Ah Xiang was recommended by Uncle Bao, there’s definitely nothing wrong with him. Don’t you trust Uncle Bao?” Jiu Li said, taking out a slip of paper from her pocket and placing it on the table while eating shaved ice. “Why don’t you take a look at this?”

This is a list that Lu Yan'er drafted at the suggestion of her aunt. It lists six households that Lu Yan'er frequently visits. Except for one official, the rest are all businessmen.

She glanced at the names on the list, wanting to ask but not daring to, and finally asked with a furrowed brow: "Lu Yan'er is a woman dealing with so many men, don't these men get jealous? Aren't men supposed to be competitive when it comes to women?"

Yu Qi frowned. "Where did you hear all this nonsense?"

She stuck out her tongue. "Sister Rouge mentioned it before, and Miss Tang also told me some things."

"These people are going to corrupt you."

She muttered softly, "Didn't you say that too?"

He suddenly remembered that night outside the ceremonial gate, because of Xu Bai's matter, he had said some things about "men and women" to her. Thinking about it now, he felt a little embarrassed, always feeling that talking to her about men and women was a taboo.

A hint of embarrassment flashed across his face as he picked up the form to cover it, but his eyes kept glancing at her face out of the corner of his eye.

Every time he looked closely at her, he hoped to find many traces of her childhood in her face, and hoped to straighten his increasingly skewed feelings for her from those traces.

But she was completely different from when she was a child. Although she used to lick her spoon when she ate, it only made her movements seem clumsy and ridiculous. Unlike now, her tongue was like a moist, slender snake, curling a little milky white color into the corner of her lips, as she smiled with self-satisfaction. It was impossible for a man not to have erotic thoughts about her.

Because he didn't answer her question, Jiuli put down her spoon, smacked her lips, and asked again, unwilling to give up, "You still haven't told me, you're a man too, don't those men get jealous?"

Even if I'm jealous, I only keep it to myself.

She rested an arm on the table and leaned closer, her voice trembling with excitement. "Why?"

Yu Qi deliberately showed a hint of impatience on his face, "A wife is a wife, a concubine is a concubine, a stolen woman is a stolen woman, and a prostitute is a prostitute. Men have always been very clear about these distinctions."

"Can feelings be distinguished by status?"

He replied casually and indifferently, "Even if you can't tell the difference, what does it matter? Men don't value feelings that much. Besides, so-called feelings are mostly just self-deception; where do you get so much emotion from?"

"Oh, why do you portray men so negatively?" She sullenly leaned back in her chair.

It was bad to begin with.

She suddenly turned her face, smiling as she looked at him, "And you? Are you just as bad?"

"I'm just a man too."

Instead of being intimidated, she propped herself up on her elbows on the table, rested her face on her hands, and raised her eyebrows slightly. "Why don't you try being naughty and see what happens?"

This subtle movement was practically a provocation, and perhaps she herself didn't realize it, showing no shame on her face, even smiling openly. But Yu Qi's heart suddenly started pounding erratically, like someone standing behind her in the dark spying on her, afraid to make a move, while she remained completely oblivious, his excitement was in vain.

He quickly shook the papers in his hands, pretending to be calm as he turned his gaze to look at the words on them.

He recognized every single word, yet they all seemed unfamiliar once they entered his mind. After looking at them for a long time, he still couldn't make sense of them, so he had no choice but to leave them on the table and scold her, "Look at all those annotations you made, they're a mess. Only you can understand what they mean."

Jiuli picked it up and read it. The narrator, Aunt Lu, had spoken so quickly that her writing was rushed and somewhat disorganized. She had no choice but to tell him the details one by one: "This Master Feng is over fifty years old. He's incredibly generous to Lu Yan'er. He lives in the north of the city, but last month he fell in love with another girl and hasn't visited the Lu family much this month. On the seventh day, he sent someone to deliver ten taels of silver to Lu Yan'er. Lu Yan'er refused to accept it, telling the Feng family servants, 'What's the point of sending money without coming? If he still cares about me, he should bring it to me personally.' Aunt Lu said she didn't refuse the money; she was afraid Master Feng would never come again, so she said that on purpose."

Yu Qi glanced at her sideways, "You even ask this?"

"What's there to be afraid of asking? Perhaps the truth lies hidden in these subtle words."

He knew everything. She inquired in such detail, partly for the case, and partly out of curiosity about matters between men and women. He shook his head helplessly, "Who else? Tell me the important things."

"What's important?"

He tapped the table. "Has anyone ever told her they wanted to marry her? Even if they were just lying to her, that counts."

She quickly pointed to a person on the list and showed it to him, "Him! His name is Shen Zhi, he's in his thirties. My aunt said he once considered taking Lu Yan'er as his second wife, but Lu Yan'er refused because he already has a wife at home. Although she's often ill, she won't die anytime soon."

After saying that, she frowned and asked, "Why do you insist on asking who talked to her about marriage? Is it that important?"

Just then, a patient came in for a consultation, so Yu Qi didn't answer immediately. She was busy sitting down on a chair next to him to take the patient's pulse. She waited anxiously for half a day, and finally the patient came out. She hurriedly put away his wrist pillow and asked him the same question again.

Yu Qi picked up his teacup, but it was empty. He then walked into the courtyard. Jiu Li hurriedly followed him into his room and rushed to pour him some tea for his small study.

Yu Qi sat behind his desk, slowly sipping his tea and said, “This morning, Miss Tang said that Lu Yan’er was thinking about getting married, but the maid who serves Lu Yan’er every day said that she had never heard her say that she had such a plan. Although the two of them contradicted each other, neither of them seemed to be lying.”

"Whether it's true or false, what does it have to do with the case?"

He frowned. "This matter may seem insignificant, but it might be closely related to the truth. Think carefully about what Miss Tang said. When did Lu Yan'er suddenly bring up marriage with her?"

Jiuli nodded and calculated, “Miss Tang said she met Lu Yan’er on the afternoon of the day we went to find her. We went to find her on the morning of the 12th. That’s right, the day after Tang Chengguan’s body was retrieved. I went to find her with Miss Guan in the morning. After leaving her house, we took a boat to Xiaorong Village.”

“Yes.” Yu Qi put down his teacup and said while thinking, “That maid serves Lu Yan’er every day. If Lu Yan’er had really been talking about marriage with someone before, she would definitely not have been able to hide it from her, because she would have had to rely on the maid to pass on messages and run errands. If she says no, then she probably didn’t. Perhaps Lu Yan’er only suddenly had the idea of ​​getting married on the afternoon of the 12th.”

She found it hard to believe, "How can something as simple as getting married be decided on a whim?"

"In the past, the final destination of these women in brothels was to find someone to marry. However, Lu Yan'er had a clever plan. She didn't want to become a concubine, but she was also afraid that if she married a man from a poor family, she would have to support him. So she never had this plan. The day she suddenly decided to do so, perhaps she had stumbled upon a good opportunity."

Jiuli sat down by the window. "What could be the trigger?"

He looked at her, remained silent for a moment, as if he had already thought of it, and then smiled, "Think back again, under what circumstances did Lu Yan'er mention this plan to Miss Tang on the 12th?"

Jiuli carefully considered what Miss Tang had said, and suddenly his face showed surprise, "It was after Miss Tang mentioned that Tang Chengguan had died!"

He nodded. "It was probably this news that sparked her idea of ​​getting married."

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Author's note: Thank you for reading.